Tackling and blocking apparatus



United States Patent [72] Inventor William David Schmitter 80 277. Rte. #2. Marysville, Ohio 43040 [21] App1.No. 698,874 [22] Filed Jan. 18, 1968 [45] Patented Dec. 15, 1970 [54] TACKLING AND BLOCKING APPARATUS 8 Claims, 7 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl 273/55 [51] Int. Cl. A63b 69/34 [50] Field ofSearch 273/55;

[56] References Cited UNlTED STATES PATENTS 3,424,458 l/1969 Hopps .lr. 273/55 2,255,711 9/1941 Noor 273/55X FOREIGN PATENTS 156,208 1/1921 Great Britain 272/70 702,402 1965 Canada Primary Examiner-Anton O. Oechsle Assistant Examiner-Theatrice Brown Atlorney- Francis T. Kremblas, Jr.

longitudinal movement of the tracks in a manner to provide controlled reaction to human contact.

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TTORNEY PATENTED 0501 51970 SHEET 5 UF 6 w? ww H wm A a! I I ill|lls|vmwml -NW M i I 0 W w. q m n! ILF'I Ill lI-lul IIIIIIIIILI Nm mm m INVENTOR. W/ZZ/AM D. fiCHM/TTER A TTORNEY PATENTED 05121 519m 3. 547L438 sum 5 OF 6 I l 20 l 28 2 J 70 g 70 g- 26 E 26 INVENTOR. WILL/AM D. fiCHM/TTER ATTORNEY TACKLING AND BLOCKING APPARATUS The present invention relatesgenerally to an apparatus for improving football skills and particularly to an improved apparatus for blocking and tackling practice and the like.

In general, the present invention comprises a frame means including vertically extending and horizontally extending support members. The horizontally extending support members include both lateral and longitudinal members and certain of these members also serve as a guide for 1a moveably mounted track means or carriage for travel along the length of the guides. A practice dummy is fastened to each-track means and the guides are preferably movably mounted on the frame such that the spaced relationship between the dummys may be varied at will to accommodate a great variety of football drills and to simulate various football situations. Spring means are mounted on the guide means to resist longitudinal movements of the track means and dummy in a manner to provide controlled reaction to human contact.

Many types of foot ball practice apparatus have been designed since many proper football techniques are best learned under strictly controlled conditions which are possible only through the use of mechanical apparatus. Of the many types of prior art practice apparatus each is generally limited to a specific drill, or at best, a few types of drills emphasizing a specific skill. Therefore it has been necessary to obtain different types of practice machines if the football coach desires to have his players perform the generally recommended drills which cultivate the variety of necessary football skills.

Many elaborate and complex structures have been devised in an effort to simulate live or realistic action buthave not met with success because of failure to achieve this end or because the cost of manufacture and fabrication prohibits any practical widespread use in high school and colleges. Most coaches do not desire complete human reaction when teaching fundamental techniques because it is desirable to overemphasize a particular reaction to human contact under strictly controlled conditions. Such control' is not feasible against a human opponent and there isa greater risk of injury during practice session if a human opponent is-involved. Once the fundamental technique is well learned using the practice machine, it is relatively much easier to adapt these techniques to human opponents.

One of the major problems with existing football practice apparatus is the limited types of practice drills that may be performed which therefore limits the skills that may be developed. Another problem with the. apparatus presently used is the failure to supply the most desirable reactions to human contact in order to facilitate the learning process of fundamental blocking and tackling techniques;

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for football blocking and tackling practice which exhibits specific dynamic characteristics". that' emphasize the most desirable reactions to human contact to aid the teaching of the more difficult and the most important blocking and tackling techniques and to permit the cultivation of these techniques to a high degree of excellence.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus of the type described which permits a wide variety of football drills to be performed which cultivate completely different football skills using only one apparatus rather than a plurality of different types of apparatus.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus of the type described which may be readily adapted in a simple manner to a variety of configurations which permits a player to perform in a predeterminedfrnanner to cultivate a variety of particular football skills.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus of the type described which is of relatively simple construction and which permits simpleand easy assembly and disassembly.

It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus of the type described which may be manufactured and fabricated at relatively low cost using standard procedures and conventional components.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings wherein preferred forms of embodiments of the invention are clearly shown.

IN THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a side elevational view of a football blocking and tackling apparatus constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an end elevational view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a partial side elevational view in section illustrating a portion of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1. the section being taken along line 3-3 in FIG. 2; s

FIG. 4 is a partial end elevational view in'section illustrating a portion of the apparatus shown in FIG. I, the section being taken along line 4-4 in FIG. 3; 1

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of a football blocking and tackling apparatus illustrating another preferred embodiment and constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a partial side elevational view in section illustrating a portion of the apparatus shown in FIG. 5, the section being taken along a plane similar to line 3-3 in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 7 is a top plan view of the apparatus shown in FIGS. I and 2. I

Referring in detail to the drawings, a football blocking and tackling apparatus constructed in accordance with the present invention is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 and includes a frame means indicated generally at 20.

Frame means 20 comprises vertically extending support members 22 which are preferably fixedlyplaced in the ground and horizontally extending support members 24 which are connected to members 22 at threadedfittings 26. A pair of inclined support members 27 are preferably included and are welded to the vertically extending members 22 at one end of the frame means to give added support against longitudinal imposed stresses.

Certain other horizontally extending members function as a plurality of guides, indicated generally at 2 8; and each include a central portion 30 and end portions indicated generally at 32 and 34, as best seen in FIG. 3.

End portions 32 and 34 include a plate 36 rigidly connected to central portion 30 and a pair of outwardly projecting ears or lugs 38. Ears 38 slidably receive respective support members 24 to moveably mount guide members 28 to frame means 20. Members 28 are locked in position by means of a removable pin 40 disposed in aligned bores 42, provided in ears 38, and in one pair of a plurality of bores 44 spaced along the length of members 24. 1

End portion 32 includes a stem 46 which is slideably mounted in central portion 30 andremovably fixed in position by a threaded bolt 48 and a nut 50.

Referring now to FIGS. 3 and 4, a track means or carriage, indicated generally at 52, is moveably mounted for travel along the longitudinal axis of each guide 28. Each track means 52 includes frame members 54, upper bearings 56, lower bearings 58, spacers 60 and pins 62 upon which bearings 56 and 58 are rotatably mounted.

Lower spacers 60 are rigidly connected to a base plate 64. by a strong weld, for example, and a rigid stem 66 to which a practice dummy 68 is attached is securelyconnected to base plate 64. s

A tension spring 70 is mounted on the central portion 30 of each guide member 28 and is fixed to a spring seat 72 which in turn is fastened to central portion 30 by a threaded fastener 74 and nut 76. One end of spring 70 is fastened to seat 72 by a clamp 78 and nuts 80. The opposite end of spring 70 is extended through a bore 82 provided in a lug 84 which in turn is rigidly connected to track means '52. A clamp 86 fastened around the end of spring 70 prevents withdrawal of spring 70 through bore 82. In this manner, track means 52 is biased against longitudinal movement to the right, as viewed in FIGS. I and 3, and spring 70 offers increasing resistance as track means 52 is moved to the right.

It should be pointed out that relatively accurate determination may be made of the force required to move track means 52 and dummy 68 along the length of guide 28 since spring 70 supplies substantially all the resistive force that must be overcome. This is true because upper and lower bearing member 56 and 58, shown in the form of rollers, permit relatively low friction travel of track means 52 along guide 28.

Another advantage of the present invention is that the wear on the track means and the guides is reduced by use of bearings and therefore such a construction contributes to longer life of the apparatus which by design will be subjected to repeated and rather violent use.

Now referring to FIGS. and 6 another embodiment of the present invention is illustrated with those components of identical construction to the components in the embodiment shown in FIGS. l--4 being referred to by the same reference numerals.

The main difference between the embodiment shown in FIGS. [-4 and that shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 resides in the substitution of two compression springs 90 and 92 for tension spring 70, which has the effect of rendering the construction somewhat more simple and the assembly of the apparatus easier. It should be noted that it is not necessary to use any type of tool to assemble the track means and the dummy on the frame means in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 since the threaded fasteners nuts and eyebolts are eliminated.

it should be further noted that stem 46-A in FIG. 6 is not fastened to central portion 30 and the spring seat is completely eliminated as both springs 90 and 92 freely engage plates 36 and lugs 84-A.

The use of the two compression springs on opposite sides of track means 52 also provide a damping action when track means 52 is moved toward the right or left and then suddenly released. In the embodiment shown in FIGS;- l4, the sudden release of track means 52 after being moved to the left produces a relatively violent shock upon spring 70 and track means 52 upon returning to the normal position and therefore a high stress is imposed. The stress is reduced greatly in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. 7

It is also important to the point out that in both embodiments shown, track means 52 is freely, pivotal about the guide members. This feature is very important with respect to blocking drills because the participant must deliver a direct blow upon the dummy and maintain the axis of his body substantially aligned with the direction of travel of track means 52. If the initial blow is offcenter the dummy will tend to swing away from the blocker and cause the blocker to lose contact with the dummy. If the initial blow is made properly, but the blocker does not maintain the axis of his body in alignment with the direction of travel of the track means, contact with the dummy will be difficult to maintain as the track means and dummy is moved along guide member 28.

The blocker will always tend to lose contact with dummy 68 when the component of the force exerted by the blocker in a perpendicular direction relative to the direction of travel of the track means is great enough to cause the track means and dummy to pivot about guide 28. Therefore, the coach can easily determine whether or not the blocker is maintaining good body balance and drive by the distance that the blocker is able to maintain contact with the dummy and also by how the blocker reacts if the dummy begins to pivot about the guide 28. The fact that the track means and dummy are pivoted about guide 28 is also important in many other nonbloeking drills and therefore adds a-great deal of versatility to the apparatus.

While the forms of embodiments of the present invention as herein disclosed constitute preferred forms, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, all coming within the scope of the claims which follow:

I claim:

1. An apparatus for simulating football blocking and tackling practice and the like comprising,.in combination, frame means including a substantially horizontally extending guide member; a track means mounted for longitudinal movement on said horizontal extending guide member and including an 'said frame means in parallel relationship with respect to one another and including a track means mounted on a respective one of said movably mounted guide members and a practice dummy fastened to a respective one of said track means.

3. The apparatus defined in claim I wherein said spring means include a pair of compression springs mounted on 0pposite ends of said horizontally extending guide member, each of said springs including an end portion engageable with said track means.

4. An apparatus for simulated football blocking and tackling practice and the like comprising, in combination, frame means including at least one substantially horizontally extending guide member; a track means mounted for longitudinal movement along the length of said guide member and being pivotable about the longitudinal axis of saidguide member; spring means mounted on said horizontally extending guide member and engaging said track means to resist longitudinal movement of said track meanson said guide member; and a practice dummy rigidly fastened to said track means.

5. The apparatus defined in claim 4 wherein saidv guide member includes end portions provided with a pair of outwardly projecting ears for slidable engagement with horizontally extending support members of said frame means, at least one of said end portions including a stem slidably and removably mounted to said guide member.

6. The apparatus defined in claim 4 wherein said track means includes upper and lower bearings members for rolling engagement with a said guide member.

7. The apparatus defined in claim 4. wherein said spring means include a pair of compression springs slidably and removably mounted on said guide member, each of said springs including an end portion freely engageable with said track means.

8. An apparatus for football blocking and tackling practice I and the like comprising, in combination, frame means including vertical and horizontal support members; a plurality of substantially parallel horizontally extending guide members, each of said guide members including end portions provided with a pair of outwardly extending ears for slideable engagement with a respective one of a pair of oppositely disposed horizontal support members; means removably locking said end portions of said guide members in predetermined spaced relationship along the length of said horizontal support member; track means mounted on each of said guide members for longitudinal movement; a pair of compression springs slideably mounted about each of said guide members, each one of a respective pair disposed adjacent to opposite ends of a respective one of said track means to resist longitudinal movement of a respective track means alonga respective one of said guide members, each of said springs including an end portion freely engageable with a respective one of said track means; and a practice dummy attached to each of said track means. 

